Featured Stories

Nursemaids

Michael Stolowicki with Gertruda Babilinska

They were young girls of very modest or poor background, who had to leave their parents’ home at an early age and go to work taking care of other people’s households and children. When the war broke out the situation often changed overnight and a reversal of fortunes took place: the Jewish employers were stripped of their status, assets and rights and became helpless victims to persecution and murder, and it was the nursemaids who, despite the danger, their young age and lack of education, took charge and assumed full responsibility for the Jewish families’ survival.